I'm still kind of confused...(strobe vs. full light?)

[Lelasmama05]

So which would be best for a beginner? I know that strobe light is best for obvious reasons that it doesn't stay on constantly there for is more comfortable for models and what not... but how do you know when yo push the button for the strobe? and is it easy enough to push the button and take the pictures at the same time?

[magicmikey]

I am assuming you are talking about studio lighting. There are several advantages strobes have over continuous lighting. One is that they are cooler. Continuous lights, other than the special daylight fluorescent lights, get very hot. Another advantage is they put out a lot more light. You don't have to worry about motion because of slow shutter speeds and you can get greater depth of field if you want it.

On the other hand, continuous lights have their own advantages. You see the light exactly as it is. (In theory, modeling lights do the same with strobes but they aren't always bright enough to see the effect.) They are also considerably less expensive.

When you use a strobe, you don't have to push a button on it to make it fire. The strobe is connected to your camera via a sync outlet and fires when you press the shutter button. If your camera does not have a sync outlet (like the XTi or XT), you can buy a hot shoe adapter that will let you plug a sync cord into it and attach to your camera hot shoe.

Michael

[Lelasmama05]

Oh really? For some reason I thought the cord was connected to a button or something that you had to push at the same time. So would my eos 30d have the right input thingy? Oh and sorry... yes I am tlaking about the umbrella studio lights. I've found a few good deals on both the strobe and the other ones... so I'm just trying to way the goods and bad leaving the price thing out of it. Thank you for your help...

[Curtis N]

So would my eos 30d have the right input thingy?Yes, the technical term is "PC socket thingy." ;) Your camera's instruction manual will help you find the PC terminal (p. 14, lower-right corner). And I'm pretty sure every studio strobe on the market comes with a sync cord to plug into it. Studio strobes also have built-in slave sensors so you only need to plug in one light, and the rest will fire simultaneously.

[magicmikey]

Yes, a Canon 30D has a PC Sync. Here's a photo that shows you where the PC Sync is located on the 30D:
http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/CanonEOS30D/Images/connectors01.jpg

The PC sync is the connector at the lower left in this photo. (It's the one that's mostly silver with a cylinder in the center.) That's where you plug the sync cable in.

You'll want to use a shutter speed of 1/200 of second or less in order to properly sync with the strobe.

Michael

[Lelasmama05]

LOL! thank you for putting up with my not so technical terms :P so my fiance is thinking that we shouldn't get the strobe b/c we want to buy a speed light soon and he thinks it defeats the purpose or something... I'm not quite sure. I wish they made it so that the bulb determined weather or not it was strobe so I could buy one set for both :confused: someone should invent that. So has anyone heard of the brand Square Perfect?

[Curtis N]

Most non-professionals will get much more use from a hotshoe flash unit (Speedlite) than studio strobes. They are different tools for different purposes, with a bit of overlap in their capabilities. They each have their own learning curve.

[opus13]

this is a great ontroduction to off-camera lighting, and will help you get comfy with the ideas and terminology:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

it sure helped me a ton

[Lelasmama05]

Thank you!

[Kristy]

You can also go wireless with your strobes and purchase a trigger to put on your camera that will cause the strobes to flash when you press the shutter button. It's nice to not have all the wires around you. :)

You just have to decide if you want to do studio strobes or "Strobist" with camera flashes, or continuous lighting.

Whichever you choose, I recommend learning to use ONE LIGHT at a time and add more as you begin to realize the shadow/highlight in your images...

While you are trying to decide which way to go with the lights, start playing with a large window and a reflector for fill. It's so important to understand the ligfht and the direction of it, and naural light can be beautiful... the best thing about it is that pretty much what you see is what you get.

Advantage of artificial light is that you can control how much light you need to achieve the result you want... and to optimize the desired camera settings (for me that means I can get my shutterspeed up high enough to hand hold lol)

Hope that helps a bit... just my 2-cents....